The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music is partly to blame for the suspension of all competitions on the BBC after it was announced that the show, along with various others such as Comic Relief and Children in Need were all found to have breached editorial standards.
In pre-recorded programmes, presented as if they were live, a competition was announced in the Liz Kershaw Show which appeared to feature genuine listeners phoning in to take part, one of whom would win a prize on air. In fact, in recorded programmes, there were no competitions or prizes and all of the callers were actually members of production team and their friends. A new producer took over the programme in December 2006 and stopped the practices as a matter of priority.
Just last week Ofcom fined the BBC £50,000 after the children's programme Blue Peter falsified the results of a phone-in competition during a live show. BBC Director general Mark Thompson has outlined a "zero tolerance" approach to any future lapses in editorial judgement.
Mr Thompson revealed the errors on Wednesday, and was keen to point out how important it is to inform the public of the mistakes. He said: "It's right that we are open with the public when we have fallen short and that we demonstrate that we take this very seriously indeed. There is no excuse for deception. I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC."
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